Nulli Secundus means Second to None

Nulli Secundus, this 1964 Gage-Hacker, is now undergoing a major refit at Bergersen Boats located in Springfield Wisconsin.

She will receive a new stem, keel, bottom, and transom (partial). Over this winter the double planked mahogany bottom will be replaced. By spring she will be ready for a sea trial and fun on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin where she was specifically designed to cruise.

I suspect that the money spent to buy Gage-Hacker, upgrade it and maintain it will never be recovered but it sounds great and handles the Lake Geneva chop exactly as it was designed to do. I have been assured that after the new bottom is in place there will no longer need to be a 24-hour soak before heading out for a cruise. The boat has a sturdy effective bilge pump that will no longer be a vital component.

His email about the current restoration also included this statement that captures one reason most of us choose to love vintage boats.  

“The beauty of wooden boats arises from their origin: they were once alive. That natural origin cannot be replicated from or by man made materials. Wooden boat owners implicitly know and revel in this unmistakable reality every time they cast off.”

Karl Klockars is sharing this current information about Nulli Secundus just as he did in an article in the Rudder magazine, Spring, 2015, Volume 24, Number 4.  If you are a current member of ACBS, you may read that original article online at https://myacbs.org/Archive/Rudder. (Use your email address to sign-in to Members Only, then click on the Resources tab.)

The Rudder article tells about how Karl and Lynn Klockars first became the owners of this boat and the research they did to find the history of the boat.  Part of that research uncovered a seven-page story written by John Hacker for an early 1960 issue of Motor Boating magazine containing complete plans What also remains is a seven-page story written by John Hacker for an early 1960s issue of Motor Boating magazine containing complete plans of an,

“exceptionally fine 22’ utility runabout. A clean lined, modern boat of a type highly popular today, she is worthy of bearing the Hacker name.”

In that story, he used terms like battens, butt blocks, lead paint, copper clout nail, spun cotton caulk and, yes, linoleum.  Sales brochures from 1961 described this model as a boat “for the man who wants to lift himself above the humdrum of everyday living.  It is for the man who appreciates rugged construction combined with exhilarating beauty.”